Exploring university‐industry collaboration in research centres

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore university-industry collaboration in research centres. Design/methodology/approach -The paper builds on an explorative study of three research centres at a technical university in Sweden, using in-depth interviews. The three research centres, Alpha, Beta and Gamma, have various degrees of involvement with industry. Findings -A total of four broad forms of collaboration are suggested: distanced, translational, specified and developed collaboration.Research limitations/implications -The paper shows that the different institutional logics of academic actors, industry actors and funding agencies can be present in collaborations in (at least) four different ways resulting in four different types of research processes. Since not all actors are likely to be equally satisfied in all types of collaborations, the continued development of the research centres will be at risk. Practical implications -If the role of the research centre is to be a forum for collaboration, the research centre has to be a good mediator between the actors in order to ensure their satisfaction with the research centre within and between projects. If, in contrast, the role of the research centre is to be a facilitator of collaboration, the research centre needs to enable the actors to learn how to interact with each other in order for the distanced, translational, specified collaboration to evolve into developed collaboration. Originality/value -Few studies have focused on the collaborations per se in research centres, taking the different institutional logics of the actors involved in the collaboration into account.

Collaboration for Innovation: A Case Study on How Social Capital Mitigates Collaborative Challenges in University–Industry Research Alliances

“…Recently, studies have called for in-depth, longitudinal research on universityindustry collaboration in research alliances (Lind et al, 2013, Smith, 2012. This paper contributes to the literature on university-industry collaboration by exploring how firms and PROs are able to achieve fruitful collaboration in research alliances over time, in the sense that the partners are able to create knowledge and innovation, by specifically exploring the role of relational and cognitive social capital.…”

Exploring the possibility of co-operation between higher education and industries in Malaysia

“…The benefits of university-industry collaboration are also evident in developing countries, including Malaysia (Marotta, Blom and Thorn, 2007) University and industry collaboration takes multiple forms. (Lind, Styhre & Aaboen, 2013) laid down four types of university and industry collaboration.First form is where the industry provides research funding for the university and takes no part in decision making of the research direction. Second form of collaboration is where the industry is more involved in the research collaboration, for example by taking part as a member of the board of research.…”

Work placements in doctoral research training in the humanities: Eight cases from translation studies

“…Borrell-Damian 2009, Pertuzé et al 2010, Todd et al 2011, Technopolis 2011, Science Business Innovation Board 2012, Lind et al 2013) nevertheless paint a dappled picture, with the headlined success stories being written against a background of inconclusive attempts:…”

“…1 Four 1 Lind et al (2013) identify four broad forms of collaboration: distanced, translational, specified and developed. The experiences reported on here seem not to find a comfortable place in any of these categories.…”